Chesterfield Borough Council is to start an assessment to see if land in Ashgate is suitable to develop new homes.

The council is considering selling the land at Linacre Road to housing developers in phases of eight to ten acres.

The council has a requirement to build 380 homes each year and currently has a backlog of 800 homes to be built in addition to these.

Councillor Terry Gilby, Chesterfield Borough Council's deputy leader and executive member for planning, said: "This land at Linacre Road was originally given outline planning permission for housing in the early 1990s.

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"Although planning policy was changed to encourage more building on brownfield sites, the land has been held by the council ever since with the hope that planning consent for residential use would be possible.

"It is necessary for us to earmark some greenfield sites for housing to meet the requirement for a five year supply of deliverable housing sites. Put simply, brownfield sites cannot accommodate all of our housing needs."

The council's adopted Local Plan Core Strategy, adopted in 2013, highlights Holme Hall and Linacre Road as an area for sustainable housing development, as it has good road access, capacity in local schools and is close to a good range of shops and services.

Proposals for the site would still need to be the subject of a planning application.

(CD/JP)